First Riders On Twisted Colossus

Last night was an Employee Preview event at Six Flags Magic Mountain, where the employees could be the first riders on Twisted Colossus before the masses hit this coming Saturday. Each employee was allowed to bring one guest, and as luck would have it, a friend of mine was kind enough to invite me so I could be amongst the first to ride Twisted Colossus. I was a little hesitant to accept at first, given my position with this blog. I didn’t want to make anyone feel uncomfortable or awkward with me being there, or put him at risk of getting in trouble. However, he assured me that he had already checked with the “silver tags” (managers), and having me attend would not be an issue. Yay!!

We arrived at 8:00 pm, right as the park closed. We lined up at the employee entrance and walked through the backstage area directly into the new Screampunk District. As a guest at an employee event, I didn’t want to take my camera, however I did have my cellphone on me. Once I found out they were encouraging people to take and post photos, I whipped it out. However, it was getting dark so the pics aren’t that great of quality.

This is the new portal sign into the area, along with some great concrete work:

You will definitely find some new twisted thrills here:

The new lights on the renamed Gearworks Theatre look awesome at night:

The side of the theatre now has some posters on it:

The bathrooms have been refurbished and looked nice, even though I didn’t go inside. I was just happy to see a pair of brand new drinking fountains:

The upper plaza has all new concrete and new steampunk light poles:

The Twisted ‘Wiches sandwich shop wasn’t open yet, nor did it even have a sign:

Both Ricky Rocks and DJ Nel were back at it, keeping the employees pumped up for the night. They’ll be back on the Full Throttle Nights stage starting this coming Saturday:

Lots of steampunk goodness everywhere you looked:

This is a great steampunk tractor, with a steam release every few minutes:

Of course, the star of the area is the all new Twisted Colossus roller coaster:

Check out some of this awesome detailing around the station:

The station has the same basic layout as it did when it was Colossus, with two lanes as you enter. The left side is the normal stand-by line, where most people will enter. There are some nice signs to look at as you make your way through the line:

Here’s another sign inside the queue:

The right side of the entrance is the special access lane:

It eventually forks into three separate lanes:

The far left lane will be the Flash Pass line, the middle lane is for ADA access, and the far right lane will be a single rider line:

I’m super excited there’s a single rider line, but it may not open up right away as they fear too many groups will try using it to avoid the long stand-by lines. If it does get backed up once in operation, it was designed to snake around the corner and up the back path to the upper plaza by the restaurant.

Here’s another fun steampunk element in the line:

Some of the Hurricane Harbor plumbing is now routed through the station:

The entire concrete floor of the station has been given a nice coat of epoxy. There wasn’t a single piece of gum on it, so let’s keep it that way:

More steampunk theming elements in the bushes:

As I reported in a previous construction update, they installed a new wall through the station, roughly where the second track used to run through the station on the left side:

It took me roughly 30 minutes to get from the station entrance under the sign to the air gates and ready to board a train:

Looking back at the queue as it snakes its way through the station:

The far corner of the station is fenced off for the ride operators:

As I was at the air gate, waiting for my train, the official turnstile was brought in and dropped into place to start counting riders:

Even the air gates had fun steampunk theming elements to them:

This is the employee gate, but you can see the paint stripes from the air gate once again properly line up with the train:

The seats are very comfortable. The seatbelt attaches easily and the employees will lower the hydraulic lap bar. There is a shin guard, but there are cutouts for your feet, unlike Full Throttle, so you can’t even feel them:

It’s blurry, but I needed a picture of me riding Twisted Colossus for the very first time. I rode in the very back seat on the purple train:

What a rush! More details and my review coming on Wednesday, after media day.

As expected, you will exit to the left:

You will exit through the gate, not the gift shop:

Scream! was also back open with a brand new sign, replacing the ugly banner:

There were a few other new signs as well:

The station had the new paint color, which it desperately needed:

Other than paint, nothing else had really changed in the station:

Even the trains were the same, but they’ll get painted on their next service:

Time for a ride, old friend:

I missed this on the way in, but it was kind of cool:

My Colossus button collection is growing:

I’ll be back at the park riding Twisted Colossus on Tuesday for a commercial shoot, and then all day on Wednesday for Media Day. Expect a full review with on-ride video and a POV from that. Opening day is Saturday. Who all will I see there?

My sincere thanks to Bonnie, Sue, Donald, Mike, Robert, and everyone else from Six Flags Magic Mountain I saw that night who didn’t kick me out. I had a blast!

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30 Comments

Johnny

05/18/2015 at 10:47 pm

The ride is something long needed in SoCal. Just packed with airtime and fun. This WILL replace X2 and Tatsu as the most popular ride in the park. One thing though. I can’t for the life of me see this ride racing on a regular basis. Can you?

We had one PERFECT race too today, it was awesome, the car on the left side was egging us on the whole way up, and although it was only a second or two, looking upside during the hanging stall at my rivals beneath me was cool.

we got a tiny preview of the Stage for the new show cuz the door was open & then the producer came by & let us look and OHMYGOD it is STUNNING!! A Silk Ribbon Show all in Red & Gold. I was blown away & can not wait to see it! What a nice thing for Michael to let us peek. The whole area is stunning in it’s Steampunk details. Folks will be amazed.

Got to ride it 4 times in a row today. Somebody kept looking at the drone filming us so we had to redo it every time. I didn’t mind at first but after my 4th ride which is kind of like 8 rides I began to feel super nauseous. I kept in all down like a champ. Kurt, you could have warned us about how intense this sucker is now, holy cow! I knew it was going to faster/better/smoother etc. But being this was my first RMC renovated ride I was totally caught off guard. The new elements are really cool although during the high-5 section you can hear the urethane wheels screech as they loose traction for a brief second and slide up/down the tracks’ threshold. It reminded me of when you turn to fast/tight on a skateboard and your wheels screech. Hearing that on a roller coaster was a little weird. Either way I’m sure that adjustments will be made, we were the first group of people on a brand new ride so I understand. Long story short, Colossus is no longer a kiddie-starter ride anymore. In my option its up there with X2 and Tatsu when it comes to thrill and intensity. Insane ride.

Yes, the lift hill changes speed automatically so that the trains are always lined up (as long as they dispatch the train within a certain amount of time). At least, it will do that during normal operation. They had it in maintenance mode during the commercial filming on Monday and Tuesday, but that was just for filming purposes.

Additionally to what Ryan is saying, it’s a “smart” system meaning (according to the operator yesterday) it not only adjusts the speed of the trains on the lift hill, but if it is calculated that near the top the system cannot. Bring the trains together in time, it will allow the one in front to proceed full speed (after trying to sync first) so as to allow for capacity. It knows if that ride can’t do it and by bringing the faster train back to the station earlier, the next ride has more time to load allowing the next ride a higher chance of successful sync. Sorry couldn’t do that In 25 words or less!

Kurt, great blog as always. But I find it funny that you think the park would have a problem with you there and having a camera. I am sure every employee and their guest had a camera. Businesses realize now that everything is going to wind up on the internet. Yes, you do annoy them sometimes (confirmed by many higher ups), but of course they want pictures of this on the internet. Don’t mean to be harsh, just being truthful.